Posted on 12/22/2005 10:49:03 AM PST by aculeus
A man who was caught on CCTV repeatedly driving his car over a cat has been spared jail.
Barry Haggerty, a 58-year-old chartered surveyor from Buckinghamshire, claimed he ran over the cat 11 times because he wanted to put it out of its misery.
Haggerty was heading for work when he ran over Mixey the cat on April 12. He returned to the scene and drove forwards and backwards over the animals as it thrashed around in pain, eventually killing it.
He pleaded guilty to a charge of animal cruelty and was sentenced by Milton Keynes Magistrates to a period of imprisonment of six weeks, suspended for 52 weeks. He was also ordered to do 60 hours' community service and to pay the prosecution costs of £4,182.
Dean Price, the defence solicitor, said Haggerty was "an animal lover" who was trying to put the cat out of its misery and had reacted with "horror and remorse" when he was shown CCTV footage of what he had done.
He told police he thought he had killed the cat outright when he first hit it but he returned and ran it over a further 10 times just to be sure.
The four-minute CCTV footage showed Haggerty's silver Renault Clio drive forwards and backwards over the one-year-old tortoiseshell female 10 times over a two-and-a-half-minute period.
The cat could clearly be seen thrashing its legs and tail in agony. Haggerty is seen to get out of his car at one stage to assess the state of the cat.
"I feel really awful," Haggerty said. "My only thoughts were how can I stop this animal suffering. The only thing I had was the car. I thought I was acting in the best interests of the cat."
Information appearing on telegraph.co.uk is the copyright of Telegraph Group Limited and must not be reproduced in any medium without licence. For the full copyright statement see Copyright
I was only kidding, and I certainly believe you had every right to butcher a chicken on your farm. Also, a chicken's nervous system is not as developed as a cat's.
yeah i know. its kinda sad. people that won't live up to "if its worth doing, its worth doing right"
Oh, yeah, compare a guy who kills a cat to someone who kills 4 human beings, yessiree...
I can understand nine, but eleven?
"To: (use semi-colons to separate multiple recipients)
Fawn
Your Reply: (HTML auto-detected, see help for more information)
Tagline: (optional, printed after your name on post):
I have already previewed or do not wish to preview this composition.
Please: NO profanity, NO personal attacks, NO racism or violence in posts.
In the News/Activism forum, on a thread titled Driver who ran over cat 11 times spared prison, Fawn wrote:
So you believe that an animal can be tortured or be made to suffer at the hands of humans ....whenever they feel like doing it and not be punished? You think that's ok?"
When someone else is doing it, I think it is none of my business – unless the animal is my property, in which case I would expect to be compensated in the same way I would be if they smashed out the windows of my car. Animals are property, not citizens.
On a side note, I would question the mental stability of a person who did the things you talked about. What would be the motivation?
Maybe I should be in jail. Not long ago, a squirrel ran under the car while I was driving with my two daughters. In the mirror, I could see it flopping around. I backed up and ran over it again. (But just once.)
The girls were appalled till they had time to think about it. No way were we going to pay for a vet for the squirrel, so the alternative was to allow it to suffer till it died.
Good because I'm keeping my on you.
Animal cops never arrest anyone until after they find out the FACTS about the animal.....no false arrests. I think they need more animal cops.
"I was only kidding, and I certainly believe you had every right to butcher a chicken on your farm. Also, a chicken's nervous system is not as developed as a cat's."
Nor is a cats as developed as a mans.
I knew you were kidding. I sort of snapped back. Sorry about that.
I'm keeping my 'EYE' on you ....
I hear lots of people are doin that.
Boy I agree with you on that one, you ever try to eat a cat? They taste terrible even when you are starving!(Go ahead a ask, I know you want to!)
You must be a Democrat. You take things people say and twist them around to suit your own purposes.
I don't even have to defend my statement.
We all know what kind of killer Tookie was and how much he deserved to hang.
That doesn't excuse the actions of this savage.
There are some people who post here who think that animals should treated like objects with no feelings.
Glad I'm not one of them. You obvisouly are.
Some reasons: They hate cats, just to be cruel, think they will impress their inbred friends, religious reasons, sexual gratification, get even with Ex, angry at the world, bored.....lots of reasons....some of which are exactly like the terrorists reasons.
I kept driving, tho'.
No I don't.
Seriesly, I really don't.
Based on most of the comments (at least the comments of the animal lovers) on this thread, I guess the appropriate response would have been to drive away and let it suffer.
Your belief on this is religious, which is fine, and most of us are happily eating loads of animals. But I don't agree with your belief that animals are sort of machines or teddy bears, both of which are man made. And in terms of awareness, your average farm animal may not be especially keen, but I do not want to test my awareness of surroundings against a grizzly bear, lion, etc that has decided to hunt me.
Tenderized cat waffle. Excellent job.
Well he could have just got out of his car and shot it.. Oh wait. They can't have guns.
Yes, they do. Take it from someone who's had to patch a few of them up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.